Moving Electricity: Sometimes, Innovation Isn’t Enough
An old friend named Tim stopped by the office recently to talk about innovation in the electrical utility industry in the United States. Tim has spent 45 years in the…
Innovation Posts
Innovation Starts With Ideas and Ends With Execution
Most people think innovation is all about ideas, when in fact it is more about delivery, people, and process. Entrepreneurs looking to innovate need to understand the execution challenge if…
How To Think Big and Act Bold
What sparks paradigm-shifting innovation in any business? It’s a special mix of entrepreneur and company, regular in every respect except for having the courage and foresight to make an idea…
Lean Startups and the Art of the Pivot
The popular view of a real entrepreneur is someone with a big vision, and a stubborn determination to charge straight ahead through any obstacle and make it happen. The vision…
Strategies for Conquering Chaos in Your Startup
Every startup founder I know talks about the chaos of their business, which they usually attribute to that burst of growth that is required to get to positive cash flow.…
The Software Patent Problem
I always advise software startups to file patents to protect their “secret sauce” from competitors, and to increase their valuation. The good news is that a patent can scare off…
Cultivate a Culture of Innovation in your Startup
Entrepreneurs are usually highly creative and innovative, but many innovative people are not entrepreneurs. Since it takes a team of people to build a great company, the challenge is to…
What Government Can Do to Spur Innovation
The innovation engine that powered the U.S. economy over the last century seems to be slowing down and dying, threatening not only local opportunities but economies all over the world.…
innovation = f(mood, mindset, mechanisms, measurement, momentum)
It seems to be an accepted fact these days that big companies normally innovate by buying a startup with innovative products, rather than focusing on in-house innovations. This is a…
Get Ready for the Total Connectivity Wave
Entrepreneurs are always looking for “the next big thing,” when maybe, in fact, it’s a lot of little things that are only recognized after the fact as components of a…